Racial Trauma, Healing, and Youth Advocacy

The high-profile violence against Black Americans during interactions with police continue to occur. When it occurs in our local communities, youth may be directly impacted. Increasingly, the trauma has expanded across the country with social media and news coverage. Either way, part of our role as supportive youth development professionals is to help youth to process these events, their emotional reactions to them, and to empower them to respond if they choose to. We’ve pulled together a list of ClubX Blog posts and other BGCA resources that will support these conversations with youth, particularly youth of color. This list will continue to be updated.

Race

14 mini-courses on unconscious bias on Spillett Leadership University! At 6 minutes each, they are perfect to kick off a staff meeting or to work through individually for professional and personal development.
 
Learn more about these and BGCA’s other Racial Equity resources at bgca.net/Pages/RacialEquity.asp
The Passport to Manhood and Smart Girls Discussion Guide Growing Up Black resources are designed to help Black youth process their emotions and talk about their feelings in response to video clips and prompts covering topics such as racism, being Black in America, and gender-specific issues. There are also specific discussion prompts for groups of varying racial, ethnic, and cultural identities.

Download the Smart Girls guide at bit.ly/SGGrowingUpBlack2021
Download the Passport to Manhood guide at bit.ly/PMGrowingUpBlack2020
Educators play a crucial role in helping students talk openly about the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of social inequality and discrimination. Learning how to communicate about such topics as white privilege, police violence, economic inequality and mass incarceration requires practice, and facilitating critical conversations with students demands courage and skill.
This guide offers classroom-ready strategies you can use to plan discussions and to facilitate these conversations with your students. Available with related resources at https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/publications/lets-talk

Emotional Health

Grief is an all too familiar experience for many of the young people we serve. Nearly 1 in 15 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18, and the vast majority will experience the loss of a family member or friend by the time they complete high school.
In partnership with New York Life Foundation, The Be There initiative is a comprehensive approach to help Clubs and BGCA-affiliated youth centers build supportive relationships and integrate best practices in supporting youth experiencing bereavement and other major life altering losses. Be There provides trainings, resources and strategies that help Clubs increase their capacity to support youth, staff and families who are grieving. All Be There resources are available at https://www.bgca.net/Programs/Pages/Helping-Grieving-Youth.aspx

Supporting Youth Activism

Guide to helping teens find an issue they are passionate about and creating change in their community, available at https://www.bgca.net/Programs/ProgramDocuments/Teens_Take_the_Lead_Service-Learning_Guide.pdf#search=Teens%20Take%20The%20Lead
SMART Girls in Action provides guided steps and resources for SMART Girls groups to create and implement a community service project. SMART Girls in Action blends what girls learn during the SMART Girls targeted program with skills from the Leadership & Service core program area. This provides girls with fulfilling experiences that enable them to give back to their community and get comfortable with leadership skills. Participant and Facilitator’s Guides available at https://www.bgca.net/Programs/Pages/SMART-Girls.aspx
This toolkit will help Club teens host an event promoting discussion and constructive dialogue with law enforcement in their community. Available at https://www.bgca.net/Programs/ProgramDocuments/Dialogue_With_Law_Enforcement_Toolkit.pdf

We will continue to update this list as new resources are developed. To stay up-to-date with the most current information from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Youth Development team, follow us on Facebook.

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